Antenna Boosters: Antenna Design for Mobile/IoT Devices
Dr. Jaume Anguera
Fractus Antennas and Universitat Ramon Llull, Barcelona, Spain
Jaume Anguera, SM-IEEE, was born in Vinaròs, Spain. Founder partner at Fractus Antennas (Chief Scientist, 2017-up to date) and Associate Professor at Universitat Ramon LLull (1999-up to date), Barcelona, Spain. Previously, he was R&D Manager at Fractus (1999-2017). Author of more than 220 scientific journal and conference papers and authored four academic books. Inventor of more than 130 granted antenna patents many of them licensed to wireless companies. He worked in South Korea (Fractus-Korea) designing small and multiband antennas for the mobile industry (e.g. Samsung and LG). In Korea, he headed up the research team. One of his main tasks was to provide training, education and development of the team’s core competency, and to provide R&D vision to address the rapidly growing mobile device market.
He has supervised more than 100 bachelor/master thesis and several PhD thesis and served as a chairman at various antenna conferences.
With more than 19 years of experience in industrial design for small and multiband antennas for wireless devices, he has received awards such as New Faces of Engineering (IEEE), finalist with other inventors at the European Patent Award for the contribution of small antennas for the mobile industry as well as two awards for the best PhD thesis given by COIT (Colegio Oficial Ingenieros de Telecomunicación) and Telefónica. Dr. Anguera has been participating in more than 17 funded national and international research projects valued more than 6M€ (e.g. H2020), many of them as a principal researcher. He is an Associate Editor at Electronics Letters, member of the editorial board at several scientific journals and reviewer at prestigious journals (IEEE, IET, PIER).
Dr. Aurora Andújar
Fractus Antennas, Barcelona, Spain
Aurora Andújar, M-IEEE was born in Barcelona, Spain. Founder partner at Fractus Antennas (Product Manager, 2017 – up to date). She received the Bachelor's degree in Telecommunication Engineering in 2005, the Master degree in 2007, and PhD degree in 2013 from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). From 2007 to 2017 she worked with Fractus as R&D Engineer where she was in charge of the development of technological projects focused on the design of miniature and multiband antennas for wireless devices. She was also involved in the maintenance and growth of the patent portfolio of the company, including the development, writing, and prosecution of new inventions and patents (2007-2013). Since 2009 she is leading research projects in the antenna field for wireless devices in the collaborative university-industry framework. In 2013, she moved to the Products and Service Department where she was in charge of the development and release of new antenna products for wireless devices.
Dr. Andújar has more than 11 years of experience in the antenna industry. Author of more than 20 patents in the antenna field. She has published more than 85 papers in scientific journal, international, and national conferences. She has directed more than 34 bachelor and master thesis. She received two awards for the best PhD thesis given by COIT (Colegio Oficial Ingenieros de Telecomunicación) as well as special awards given by UPC.
She is editor of International Journal on Antennas and Propagation.
Abstract
The short-course will introduce the audience to a small and multiband antenna technology based on replacing a complex and usually customized antenna design with an off-the-shelf, standardized, miniature component called antenna booster. Being surface-mount and chip-like in nature, the antenna booster fits seamlessly in an electronic printed circuit board the same way any other electronic component such an amplifier, filter or switch, to name a few, does. It can be assembled with a conventional pick-and-place machine, making the manufacture and design of the new generation of IoT/Mobile or wireless device simpler, faster and more effective.
The audience (from PhD students to researchers in the field) will be introduced to the theory behind designing an antenna booster, will be given practical examples, and will participate in a hands-on, practical application using Microwave Office circuit design software.
Course outline
The short course will be divided in two parts.
The first part will include a detailed presentation on the theory, regarding how to design small/multiband antenna systems with antenna boosters and matching networks. The importance of physics in understanding how the technology works will be emphasized and the related applications of the technology will be fully discussed.
The second part will provide a hand-on experience and each attendee will have the opportunity to put the theory into practice. Using Microwave Office, two examples starting from scratch will be fully detailed. The examples will include the design of an ISM antenna system on a wireless platform and a multiband design for 4G operation (824MHz-960MHz and 1710MHz-2690MHz). Both examples will use an antenna booster of only 86.4mm3.
Attendees should bring a laptop and will be given a temporary license of Microwave Office to practice multiband matching networks during the course.
PROGRAM
Part I: Theory (1h)
- Introduction
- Fundamentals
- Antenna boosters
- Matching network architectures
- Single band applications
- Multiband band applications
- Other architectures
- Reconfigurability
- MIMO
- Questions and answers
Brea2
Part II: Design with Electromagnetic (EM) Software –Microwave Office and AXIEM EM Simulator (2h)
- Design of a small antenna system at ISM (Industrial-Scientific-Medical)
- Design of a multiband antenna system at 4G (824MHz-960MHz and 1710MHz-2690MHz)
- Both designs will start from scratch: from the initial S-parameter of an antenna booster without a matching network, to the final design including the optimized matching network with an antenna booster
Final questions and answers
Conclusion
Note 1: To make the course more productive, it is recommended attendees bring a personal laptop, since access to Microwave Office will be provided for designing some the examples given in the course.
Note 2: Each attendee will receive antenna booster samples as the ones used in the short-course to test in their facilities. Also, PCBs with the full antenna system as the ones designed in the tutorial will be given under request.
